Europe

Insurance

 

We recommend that you obtain comprehensive travel and medical insurance before travelling.  You should check any exclusions, and that your policy covers you for the activities you want to undertake.   For more general information see Travel Insurance.

If things do go wrong when you are oversees then this is How we can help.

Registration

Register with our LOCATE service to tell us when and where you are travelling abroad or where you live abroad so our consular and crisis staff can provide better assistance to you in an emergency. 
 

Customs Regulations

 

Travellers entering the UK from European Union countries do not normally pay any UK tax or duty on excise goods they have bought tax and duty paid in EU countries for own use. But there are special rules for cigarettes and some other tobacco products from some EU countries.

 

The UK is maintaining limits on the amount of cigarettes and some tobacco products that travellers are able to bring in to the UK for own use from nine European Union Member States (including Hungary), without paying UK duty. Anyone who is carrying more than the limits on entering the UK should pay UK duty on those goods by entering the Customs red channel or by using the red point telephone. If travellers enter the Customs blue channel with more than the limits, then all of their tobacco may be seized.

 

All travellers who are:

 

a) entering or travelling via Hungary from outside the EU; or

b) leaving Hungary to travel to Austria, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, France and Ireland; or

c) travelling to or via Hungary from Bulgaria or Romania

 

are allowed to carry a maximum of 200 cigarettes duty-free (providing the travellers are over 17 years of age).  In Hungary, anyone exceeding this limit is likely to have their cigarettes confiscated, and could be fined or have their vehicle seized.  You should check the customs regulations before entering or leaving Hungary on the following websites:

 

EUROPA - Travelling within the EU

EUROPA - Entering the EU

Hungarian Customs and Finance Guard

 

or by contacting the Hungarian Customs and Finance Guard as follows:

 

Postal Address: 1450 Budapest, Pf. 109, Hungary

Phone: +36-1-456-9500

Fax: +36-1-456-9525

E-mail: vam.info@mail.vpop.hu

 

Money

 

Since 15 June 2007 new legislation on the controls of cash entering or leaving the EU applies in all Member States.  Any person entering or leaving the EU will have to declare the cash that they are carrying if this amounts to 10,000 euros or more; this includes cheques, travellers' cheques, money orders, etc.  This will not apply to anyone travelling via the EU to a non-EU country, as long as the original journey started outside of the EU nor to those travelling within the EU.

 

Since early 2008 there have been reports that some newer types of debit or credit cards issued in the UK do not work in certain cash machines in Hungary.  The British Embassy in Budapest understands the Hungarian banks are working on a solution.  In the meantime if you encounter this problem you should try a cash machine at a different bank, as only certain cash machines appear to be affected.